Objectives: To evaluate factors associated with disease recurrence and survival in patients undergoing nephroureterectomy for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma (UUT-TCC).

Materials and Methods: Twenty  patients (12 male, 8 female) with mean age of  67.47 years (range: 36-82) who underwent nephroureterectomy due  to UUT-TCC were included.  The preoperative diagnosis of malignancy was based on the radiologic findings, cytology and ureterorenoscopy in some cases when confirmation was needed. The tumors were observed in renal pelvis with/without ureter (17 patients, %85) or in  ureter only (3 patients, %15). The histologic examination revealed organ confined in 14 patients. Three patients had positive lymph node at pathologic specimen and three patients had metastases to nearby  organs. The mean follow-up period was 19.9 months(range:4-48).

Results:   Five patients(%20) died due to the local recurrence of the disease. All of these cases had either positive lymph node or metastasis to nearby organs. The tumor grades in all patients were either moderate (II) or sever (III), except four patients had grade (I).  All patients who had positive lymph node or involvement of  other organ were of high grade tumor.

Conclusion: Tumor stage and grade seem to be the most important predictors of disease recurrence and survival. Patients with high stage and high grade disease continue to fare poorly. We suggested that, the need for additional treatment modalities besides the standard approach is mandatory. Further prospective randomized studies are required to define a new protocol for the treatment of upper TCC to improve the patients out comes.

Conference Title

20. NATIONAL CONGRESS OF UROLOGY - 20. ULUSAL ÜROLOJİ KONGRESİ

Conference Country

Turkey

Conference Date

Nov. 1, 2008 - Nov. 1, 2008

Conference Sponsor

NATIONAL CONGRESS OF UROLOGY